Lina sighed, resting her head in her hands. Why did guys do such dumb stunts? Here she thinks that Zel actually might be somewhat of a responsible guy, and there he goes, doing something, who knows what, to the key stone. A little voice in the back of her mind chided her. She wouldn't mind this at all if he hadn't surprised her. If she had had any idea what he was up to, she might have cheered him on.
The creak of the door warned her that someone was entering her office. She looked up. "Hello, Zel."
"I wanted to apoligize for startling you earlier." The chair he pulled out creaked under his weight.
Lina smiled wryly. "As my conscience just pointed out, it wouldn't have bugged me half so much if I'd known you were going to be doing something first."
Zel smiled back at her, equally wry. "Will you settle for a warning?"
"I guess that'll have to do. Well, I've got to get moving. Got an important spell to cast tonight!" LIna began scooping her belongings off her desk into a duffelbag. In a very short amount of time, she was finished and running out the door. "Bai Zel!"
"Goodbye, Lina." Zel spoke to an empty room.
It was evening, exactle three minutes before the final edge of the sun would disappear. The circle had been laboriously drawn and warded in three different shades of red chalk and green marker. She had bathed and cleansed herself, anointing her hair with herbal essences.
"This had better be worth it ... " She muttered under her breath before beginning the incantation. The merchant had sworn that this version of the spell would prove better than the tried and true.
The heart of my soul calls to thee
the one who helps complete me
In his tower room, studying, Zel glanced up, looking around. Something was tugging on the outskirts of his mind, pulling on his emotions. Like some half-forgotten dream, warm, comforting.
"Who calls ... ?" His voice was harsh, broken sounding.
It had been a long time since he had any dreams, longer still from when he had good dreams ...
I wait here, offering a home, good food,
the love of a friend
I ask you to stay, until my end
The words echoed through his skull, identifying themselves as the spell to call for a familiar ... and yet different, something else as well. Where had she learned that spell!? Never had anything pulled so strongly at him.
Never.
Lina opened her eyes, fully expecting to see here familiar sitting in the circle before you. She did not expect to see a young man with blue skin, deep blue eyes, and lavender hair staring at her in utter shock with an winged cat on his head. Before she could say anything or do anything other than blush, he disappeared, and the cat fell with a thunk and a pained meow to the ground.
"Well! That's definitely not the greeting I was expecting! How rude!" The cat was talking. Not in her head like expected. The cat was talking out loud. With a british accent, no less!
The cat turned to face Lina, settling it's fur with a few swipes of a paw. "Well now, I've been trying to find you for a long time."